Tire Make/Model Determination

Tire Guides

Tire Guides, Inc. was founded by Bennett Garfield in 1950. Bennett Garfield, a young entrepreneur working in tire sales, recognized the industry’s need for more detailed tire information. He left his sales position and started a publishing company. The first publication, Tire-Fax, was an instant success. Seeing then how the industry welcomed this 'collection' of tire information, Bennett pressed on and in 1957 he debuted his company’s namesake publication the Tire Guide. Now for the first time tire dealers had an accurate up-to-date collection of motor vehicle fitment information covering a 10 year period which included tire sizes, optional tire sizes and inflation and rim specifications for both domestic and foreign vehicles.

Over the years, Tire Guides, Inc. has always made a priority of addressing the informational needs of the tire industry. In 1966, they expanded their publications by introducing the following publications, which are the primary resources for forensic tire examiners when determining the make and model of source tires from crime scene tire impressions:

Today, Tire Guides, Inc. is well known as the Worldwide Tire Information Center. In keeping up with technology, much of our information is available in an electronic format.

Their mission is to provide the most complete and up-to-date technical tire information in a variety of easy to use formats to anyone who may need or desire such valuable information.

Tread Typer

Tread Typer is a discussion board on the SWGTREAD Forum. This board is designed to assist practitioners with make/model determinations of questioned footwear and tire impressions. This resource enables practitioners to post an image(s) of a crime scene footwear or tire impression in hopes that another practitioner will be able to identify the make/brand and model of the shoe or tire, which COULD be the source of the impression. It is the responsibility of the practitioner posting to Tread Typer to verify the information/images included in the responses. It is recommended that you consult with the evidence contributor and remove case-related information in/from the images prior to posting on this board.

In order to access Tread Typer, you must be a registrered as a Practitioner on the SWGTREAD Forum. Go to http://forum.swgtread.org and register. Then, access the Tread Typer board under the Practitioners' Forum.

NON-PRACTITIONERS

Non-practitioners are those individuals who collect footwear and tire impression evidence or investigate crimes which involve this type of evidence. Non-practitioners have not completed a formal laboratory training program in the examination of this type of evidence and they don't conduct comparisons, issue laboratory reports or testify as footwear/tire experts in courts of law.

For non-practitioners who are ineligible to access Tread Typer, contact your local forensic services provider for assistance regarding requests for make/model determinations.